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The Factory and City Revolution
The Steam Engines Steps up the Game As the industrial revolution began, different types of power were innovated, that meant that water no longer was the main power source for factories, prior to the steam engine water was used to turn paddles and move gears to power machines. Now with the steam engine safe enough for industrial use on large scale, factories could be established away from water. For Better or Worse With the innovation of the steam engine, people lost jobs because one steam engine could do the work of ten or more men. Now a steam engine, wasn’t just a train, a steam engine was a machine that was powered by oil or coal to boil water, and drive pistons to do work. Steam engines could cut down the time it took to make material by half the time, and were much faster. The steam engine made it possible for factories to expand. And the people who lost their jobs due to the steam engines found them again in the larger factories. More Better and Worse However many people lost their jobs, they found them again, with the addition of the steam engine, factories increased production ten-fold, with more production meant more workers to man the factories and run the machines. These machines however were unsafe and many people died as a result. However the factories did increase production and helped to build a better America. The Elevator In 1853, Elisha Otis brought the elevator to the city. It revolutionized the city because now buildings hundreds of feet tall could be built. A practical step forward for the public, because people would not have to walk up hundreds of feet in stairs every day. Within the next five years electric elevators replaced the older gas powered one's and weight powered systems made elevators faster and safer. From Slate to Marble Before steel became a relevant building material, the sturdiest building material was brick, which compared to conventional construction methods is laughable. However for years brick was what built homes, businesses, and factories. Brick could only build buildings structurally stable buildings up to a height of four or five stories. Major cities, expanding cities, cities like Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, New York, and Chicago, couldn't build out, so they had to build up. Reaching for the skies The cities were revolutionized by steel. The tensile strength of steel far exceeded the strength of materials such as iron, wood, and brick. Up until the turn of the century, buildings that towered over the city were just dreams. Steel made it possible to construct structurally sound structures that could be twenty and thirty stories tall. Steel was a bendable material, capable of flexing, bending and not breaking. Steel could evenly distribute the weight of the structure around its whole system, and not focusing it on a single point. Steel skeletons buildings made buildings go from forty feet to four hundred. The Railroad Comes to Town The early railroad kings, Tom Scott, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and others brought their railroads into the cities. With that a boom like no other was created, people had access to public transportation, goods shipment, and could travel from one area to another, faster than ever now. As the cites adopted the railroads the profits for the men building them rose ever higher. Grand central station As a cock-sure testament to his greatness and might, Cornelius Vanderbilt builds the enormous, over one hundred acres Grand Central Station in the heart of New York. This station unites the four largest railroads together in one place. Now for the first time the north, south, east, and west were all connected at one point. Vanderbilt’s monument still displays his wealth and power to this day. The Ports America’s great cities began as port cities, Philadelphia; New York; Boston; all major port cities. In America's humble beginnings, trade grew up in the ports selling and trading goods from Europe. The profits from Europe created the industry necessary for cities to grow. Once the industrial revolution began these cities only grew more. They had the population to grow so industry came to them, not the other way around. Building for a Nation Cities have existed for thousands of years. But when the industrial revolution hit the United States cities grew like never before. In a twenty year period America became the most technologically advanced nation. It grew and when the world found itself at war America was ready to step up to claim its spot as a world power. Without these improvements, faggots may not have been in existence today.